My 2 cents on Musicians in horror films
It used to be that the only time musicians were involved in a horror film, was when they were putting together the soundtrack. That has changed, drastically.Ever since the mid 90s, putting a rap/popstar or any kind of musician in a horror movie has become a growing, yet annoying trend. The list of musicians that have done horror films range from rapper Ice Cube, to popstar Lance Bass who will be in the upcoming werewolf pic "Cursed" (crosses fingers for a gruesome Lance Bass death at the paws of a pissed off werewolf), to rock star Jon Bon Jovi who made his horror film debut in the wretched "Vampires:Los Muertos", the sequel to "John Carpenters:Vampires", and last but certainly not least, R&B star Kelly Rowland who played Kia in "Freddy vs Jason". One like myself, doesn't mind when one musician is tossed into a minor cameo role, or supporting role in a horror film. and I'm sure many don't. While there are a few that don't want musicians in a horror movie period. Unless it's in a scene where the characters visit a club, and the band onstage is famous muscially. This particular trend has it's good and bad points. The good? Well, some of these musicians can act. and Also, it's always nice to see someone you appreciate musically pop up in a movie from your favorite genre, whatever that may be, in my case, horror movies. Now heres the bad side, which I hate to say, is much larger than any good that comes of putting musicians in horror movies. Most CAN'T ACT. The studios know this, yet, in order to lure in the MTV teenybopper crowd, or increase the number of minorities who will go see the film, they toss these people in anyway. Basically all in the name of money. The current thinking is, why just suck money from the wallets of horror fans, when we can score some more cash by adding a Busta Rhymes, or Haylie Duff, and then we can also profit from the fans of these 2 artists who will pay to see our movie simply because they make an appearance in it. This sacrifices the films quality, mainly because as if most horror movies don't suffer enough from horrid acting, now a musician is involved, and he/she is even worse than the real actors. Another item on the bad list, is these musicians playing themselves as a title character. A perfect example of this was Busta Rhymes performance (and I use the term loosely), as Freddie in "Halloween:Resurrection". Sure he said his name was Freddie. Sure the end credits had Busta listed as playing Freddie, but I just couldn't shake the feeling that I was watching a horror movie with THE Busta Rhymes in it, not Busta Rhymes as said character. The character of Freddie was loud, jive talking, and overly energetic, which is exactly what Busta Rhymes the rapper is like. Why not just credit him as Busta Rhymes period, if you're not gonna write his character as anyone different or the total opposite.Yet another item on the bad list, is acting being an art. It kind of insults the art of acting, when you have people out there who work their asses off to become actors, and meanwhile, because these people are popular musicians, they can just be tossed into a movie, and given a good role. While others with true talent sit on the sidelines waiting impatiently for their opportunity. This boils down once again to money. Even if you aren't a fan of Haylie Duff or Ice Cube, you more than likely have heard of them both. Through friends, or the numerous entertainment shows. and Like it or not, not true horror fans, but casual ones and most teens are more than likely to slap down their cash to see a horror movie which includes Hailey Duff or Ice Cube in it's cast rather than some guy named Richard Thompson or Jenna Avery. Because both Duff and Cube are household names as far as the MTV generation goes, thus those who wanna see their characters live or die will flock to the film. Like it or not, music stars equal drawing power, some more than others. and Drawing power equals big cash for the studios. If thats the case, one would ask, why not get big name movie actors in your horror movie? Well the reason why that doesn't work out often includes alot of factors. Number 1, most big name actors won't do horror movies. They feel thats a genre which is beneath them. A Robert Englund or Jamie Lee Curtis would do a horror movie, but they started out in this genre. Those who haven't, more than likely wouldn't want to cross over to that particular genre. Also, studios are cheap. They wanna spend as little as possible on a horror movie, and rake in as much as possible. Paying a Samuel L. Jackson or Ben Affleck to be in your horror movie would cost alot. Then there are the other actors who need to be paid and the usual production costs. In some rare cases though, it does work out, such in the case of a movie like "Identity". But most of those actors were mid to high B listers, and some aren't very well known in most circles. It's much more of a sure bet for a studio to cast a popular at the moment musician who will bring in guaranteed money from their fanbase who will contribute to the movie. So is there any end in sight to this much hated trend? Not really. Popular musicians are all over the place, and it's only natural they will be offered movie roles, and it's only natural they would accept them hoping to branch out into other things. We can only hope that the studios will look past the green, and actually give these people screentests, to see if they can actually act or not. Superb acting really was never a big deal when being casted in a horror movie, but decent to pretty good acting is mandatory for the most part from a films 1 or 2 main characters, and 1 or 2 main supporting cast members. Horror movies themselves are enough of a draw to get people into theatres. Theres no need to rely constantly on dropping 1 or 2 musicians in there to score some more box office moolah. If you are that worried about your movie not doing well, maybe you need to hire better writers, and stop hacking horror movies to pieces to appease the modern day nazi MPAA suits. To sum things up, most musicians can't act. Every now and then we get an ice cube, who plays the tough black guy role in a horror movie really well, or Kelly Rowland who does a good job playing the best friend of the female lead. But 9 times out of 10, we get a Busta Rhymes. Hence the problem. Maybe it's better that Hollywood casts a musician with acting talent, who appeals to most music lovers, of every music genre. Not just pop/rap/ or rock. and It definitely would be better if Hollywood stuck to casting real actors/actresses and not musicians. and It sure as hell would be better if these people were forced to take acting lessons for a year before they were even considered for a role in a horror movie.Besides, we are suffering enough with actors crossing over into the music world, lets try and keep something sacred shall we?
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